After watching Aaron Woods take on the Burgess brothers and the Souths pack during Friday's upset win, Wests Tigers forwards coach Steve Roach said the former NSW Origin player had followed the pre-match plan to take the Rabbitohs head on.

"That was the call, that was the plan," Roach said of the Wests Tigers forwards getting into the faces of their more fancied rivals.

When Woods' effort to take on both Sam and George Burgess was mentioned, Roach said the experience would add an extra lustre to the 23-year-old's confidence.

"I'm telling you mate, those sort of guys they're big, strong powerful blokes," Roach said. "The more wins you have like that, the more confidence you get, the better you go.

"[Woods] has carried the pack for the past three years but now he has Keith Galloway, Marty Taupau and James Gavet, we have a bit of power and we don't lose any momentum."

Woods clearly got under Sam Burgess' skin. The English forward was penalised for reacting to a Woods tackle on his younger brother, George, but Souths captain John Sutton refused to endorse calls that Burgess' habit of conceeding penalties did not need to be addressed by coach Michael Maguire or the team.

"He [saw] George getting bent over backwards and just ran in, like I think any [player] would jump in there," Sutton said. "Sammy ... he busts his arse every week for us. I don't think it is a real big issue, I think the issue was us not playing as a team.

"It was one penalty, I don't see it as too much of an issue. You move on from those things fairly quickly ... it happened early in the game. I don't reckon it had anything to do with our entire 80 minutes performance last night."

The ferocity of the Tigers forwards in the surprise 25-16 victory shocked the Souths, and Sutton admitted the new rule that prevented captains from talking to referees during the run of play was frustrating as he tried to communicate issues he wanted raised.

"I tried, I tried pretty much," he said of attempting to talk to the referees after conceding he believed they had lost a bit of control during the game.

He said some teams were likely to follow the Tigers' game plan and try to muscle up on them.

"It's NRL, every game is tough and physical." he said. "Teams will be coming at us but we'll be coming back at them. We just have to hold the ball, don't do so much defence, put some points on the board and we'll be all right."